coastal scene

This is part 2 – my second “Wittgensteinian Essay”* exploring the phrase: “a compassionate consent to Reality.” You can find part 1 here. 1.“Reality” is the hard rock on which waves crash, and it is the soft welcome of a mother’s lap. Does it ask for consent? Refusal means denying […]

madonna and child Sassoferrato

I’m using a writing format learned from peacemaker, John Paul Lederach (see his example), to explore a phrase that has become very important to me. I anticipate this to be the first of four parts – and the next one will explore what I mean by “Reality.” A Compassionate Consent […]

bronze worker emerging from manhole

Sometimes the paradoxes that seem most obviously contradictory are the ones that are so deeply true. One of the these significant contradictions is the apparently simultaneous truth that everything matters and nothing matters. At times, it would seem, wisdom leads us to clearly lean toward one or the other. Perhaps […]

lichen blooming

It may be early for New Year’s resolutions, I but think I may have just chosen one for myself: to savour more. This morning, in the midst of communion at church, I felt an inner nudge to take a moment to notice and savour what I was participating in. I […]

sculpture of a face in the gardens of the Pitti Palace, Florence

I God of sowing and reaping You created a universe of order and chaos with terrible beauty And it is very good All things are working together But it’s a wild mess Death and life entwined Your blessings raining on the just and the unjust We reap the fruit of […]

walking on beach with reflection

First of all, my self-conscious tendencies require that I tell you right from the start that a) my kind of self-consciousness may be very different from yours, and b) I wonder if this reveals a lot of pride on my part. My kind of self-consciousness, which I consider one of […]

Coliseum at Arles

Just about everyone who has looked honestly at their own thoughts could admit to at least a season of being agnostic, a time when it seemed impossible to know anything at all about God. During such a season, praying may seem confusing, frustrating or foolish. But prayer is such an […]

walking through hedge

I used to think letting go was about delayed gratification. Kind of like this: the one who loses his life will find it – eventually. But I’ve been thinking that is only the shallowest version of this truth. I’m wondering if the dying and the new life aren’t simultaneous. An […]